|
 mAGAZINE EDITORS TAKE THE PULSE OF THEIR
readers in various ways.We get letters to the editor,
of course, but there are also phone calls, not-forpublication
e-mails, and in-person comments, in settings both
formal and informal. In my career as an editor-in-chief, some of
the most useful conversations I've
had took place in hallways and
parking lots.
But the best way to find out
what readers think is with a subscriber
survey. Most commercial
publications hire a research firm
to do a survey every year or two,
but they're often overlooked--or
can't be afforded--by alumni magazines.
Fortunately, we were recently
able to conduct one thanks to our participation
in the Ivy League Magazine
Network (ILMN).
The ILMN comprises the alumni
magazines of seven Ivy schools (all but
Columbia) plus Stanford and the
University of Chicago. It exists
primarily to sell national advertising,
but the editors and publishers
also share information on a variety of subjects--and recently
began a program to establish online reader panels for all of the
magazines.You may have been contacted by e-mail or seen one of
the ads (like the one below) for our reader panel. If you haven't
joined, I encourage you to do so.Your feedback is important to us.
The most recent ILMN online survey, initiated in October,
focused on editorial content. In late November, we received a
report on the results so far, based on the responses of 667 subscribers.
It was gratifying to learn that 43 percent of you rate CAM
as excellent overall and 52 percent say it's good. I'll take
a 95 percent
approval rating any day--although that clearly sets a goal for
us to improve the magazine so even more of you will think it's
excellent.
Fifty percent say the Class Notes are excellent and 39 percent
rate them good. No surprise there--the last time we surveyed
subscribers, in 2001, Class Notes was the most-read section by a
wide margin (although no one besides our editors reads all of
them, I'll bet). The feature articles were rated excellent by 51
percent
and good by 42 percent. That's a heartening endorsement of
our efforts to make the features more lively and accessible, and
noteworthy, I think, in light of the fact that many of you said you
also read such fine publications as the New York Times Magazine, the New
Yorker, Smithsonian, and Forbes.
 Our campus news section, From the Hill, is also well received;
it was rated excellent by 42 percent and good by 52 percent. Even so,
when asked, "Would you like to see more, less, or the same amount
of each of the following types of stories?" 68 percent of you wanted
even more campus news. So we'll need to consider that. Our
sports coverage is an interesting quandary,
too: 29 percent always read the sports news
(and 25 percent want more) while 20 percent
rarely or never read it.
The most important question, I
think, was one that stated
"Cornell Alumni Magazine
is editorially independent
of the University's
administration" and then
asked whether you believe
this makes a difference in the
quality of the magazine. Forty
percent indicated it makes "a
lot of difference," 36 percent
said "some difference," and 9
percent said "only a little difference."
Ten percent chose "not
sure," and 5 percent believe it
makes "no difference at all." Those results speak for themselves--
and I'd love to talk with any of the thirty-four subscribers who
think editorial independence makes no difference. Please give me
a call: (607) 272-8530 ext. 31.
-- Jim Roberts '71 |
